Newly appointed Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug gives a statement to the media outside the Bank of Israel building in Jerusalem Oct. 20. Israel on Sunday named Ms. Flug as the first woman to head its central bank and meet the challenge of a rising shekel after a rocky selection process that dragged on for months. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Her appointment not only concludes a drawn-out process of replacing the highly respected Mr. Fischer but is also a somewhat rare victory for women in a country that lags behind its Western counterparts in gender equality – and one that almost didn’t come about. Ms. Flug was passed over not once but twice in favor of male candidates, both of whom withdrew due to allegations of questionable conduct.

It is difficult to say with certainty whether gender bias played a substantive role in causing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to initially ignore the woman seen by many as Fischer’s preferred successor. Perhaps it was her relative lack of international standing, or a research paper she wrote during Mr. Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister that was not as flattering of his economic policy as he may have wished.

A Jewish activist, a member of the Women of the Wall group, prays at a spot a short distance from Western Wall plaza during a monthly prayer session in Jerusalem’s Old City, July 8, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

Israeli Women Battle for Jerusalem Municipality Elections Al-Monitor It is hard to imagine Queens Melisende and Sybilla, ancient rulers of Jerusalem, being impressed with the political obstacles faced by women in the city today. Yet, as the municipal election campaigns gather pace, they have placed a spotlight on the rights of the city’s females. While Melisende successfully fought her jealous husband in an all-out war in the 12th century, achieving not only a peace agreement but access to her kingdom’s innermost councils, and as Sybilla personally led the (ultimately unsuccessful) defense effort against the advances of Saladin himself, the bar for the power vested with Jerusalemite women today is considerably lower.

Voters across Israel choose new mayors and city councilors in local elections Tuesday. In one small town, a handful of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women are defying the norms of their community by running for office.

On a recent day, children mob two women in skirts, stockings and purple T-shirts in a neighborhood park in El’ad, or Forever God. The women are candidates for town council. As part of their get-the-word-out campaign, they’re blowing up balloons for kids.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a year. I think it’s crucial that women be represented on the town council,” Michal Chernovitsky, the 33-year-old leader of the five female candidates running. “Because there are just men now, a lot of issues get lost.”

This 44-year-old former maths teacher, her black hair cut into a sleek bob, is the only woman running for leadership of the sprawling northern city revered by Christians as Jesus’ childhood home.

Zuabi is just one of a growing number of women from Israel’s Arab minority vying for office in Tuesday’s elections across 191 municipalities.

“Running for mayor sends an important message saying that Palestinian women are entering local politics and putting themselves on the political map,” she told AFP during campaigning.

Mizoram poll: Women voters outnumber men, but no women’s … IBNLive Women voters have been outnumbering male voters in Mizoram for the past few years, but paradoxically there are no women representatives in the state legislature for years together. According to the voters’ lists published on August 16, of the 6,86,305 total voters, there are 3,49,506 female voters and 3,36,799 male voters. In the 2008 final electoral roll also, of the total 6.08,561 voters, female voters comprised 3,08,659 against 2,99,902 male voters. Mizoram began to have a separate legislature of its own since 1972 when it was elevated from a district council under the state of Assam to the status of union territory, but only six women, including three nominated legislators, have made it to the state assembly in the past 41 years.

War and peace: still a man’s world The Guardian The work of women’s groups and organisations in conflict zones has long been underestimated and under-resourced. After decades of lobbying, funding for women’s organisations in the peacebuilding field has increased. At the same time, a common requirement among donors has become for grantees to show how gender perspectives have been incorporated or “mainstreamed” in projects.

Leader of the Change Movement (Gorran), Nawshirwan Mustafa.

Gorran and the Political Storm over Women’s Rights Rudaw ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Eight prominent Kurdish women’s rights activists have issued a public statement criticizing the Change Movement (Gorran), accusing it of supporting political Islam and violating women’s rights.

The stand came after Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa declared in a recent television interview that his party “does not oppose anything disapproved by Islamic doctrines or the invariable rules of Islam.”

Gorran, the Kurdistan Region’s main opposition, emerged from last month’s parliamentary elections as the second most-powerful party, unseating old rival and ruling partner the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

“In the 21st century, we consider the invariable rules of Islam that Gorran does not want to oppose as violating human dignity in Kurdistan,” the activists said in their statement.

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The UK Political Studies Association Women and Politics Specialist Group. Resource for researchers working on women and/or gender and for women in the PSA. The 2014 Specialist Group of the Year.
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